


Something Different

by NikitaDreams



Category: Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 16:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13662897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikitaDreams/pseuds/NikitaDreams
Summary: Jessica is in a bar doing what she does best when someone unexpected shows up and takes her night in a different direction. Set after what I imagine the second seasons of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage to be like (based only on trailers so no spoilers). One possibility on how this ship might sail again.





	Something Different

She’d been drinking in the same bar. Maybe on the off chance one of these nights he might walk in and sit on the stool next to her’s like he had those months back.

Of course, he never did.

And why would he? Undoubtedly there were better things to do than sit in some dive knocking back another whiskey. At least, for people other than her.

Jessica stared down, through the amber liquid to the scarred bar top. If she squinted the world was still tinged purple, chasing a shiver down her spine and making her stomach churn. Back at her apartment the wretched painting still sat in the same place where she’d unwrapped it and dropped it like a hot potato before bolting out the door.

The plan was to get drunk enough or furious enough to go home and destroy it. So that she could figure out what smartass had sent it to her in the first place.

Jessica tipped the shot back, and when the whiskey slid down her throat like fire she didn’t even notice.

She sighed, motioning the bartender for a refill.

Her brain had just started to fuzz when the bell on the door clanged tinnily with a new arrival. Jess didn’t look up from her glass until someone maneuvered onto the stool beside her’s and she lifted her gaze to suggest another seat.

The words died on her tongue when she found herself looking at the very man she’d half-hoped to run into and never thought she would. Luke Cage.

He looked a little worse for wear. She could see what looked like fresh bullet holes in his hoodie, which also seemed to be covered in a fine layer of some sort of dust. He looked… aggravated, which also struck her. Luke rarely ever seemed to lose his cool.

Silently, she slid her recently refilled whiskey glass in front of him. 

“Rough day?” she asked, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the words didn’t slur when they passed her lips.

Luke looked at her in silence, then down at the drink. He picked it up and downed it, wincing slightly at the burn.

“How the hell do you drink that shit?” he hissed.

She shrugged slightly. “It’s not about the flavor.”

He frowned slightly, chewing on that little piece of information. Then he motioned to the bartender.

“Two more,” he said.

When her drink was set in front of her, Jessica picked it up. She kept her gaze straight ahead, her mind warring between craving the pleasant nothingness that came from absolute drunkenness and very real, if unwanted, concern for the man at her side. The man who…. Despite his words months back after that whole team-up bullshit… was not even her friend.

“You know… I never bought into that idea that talking about shit helped but… you seemed to,” she said.

“I didn’t come here to talk, Jess,” he replied and when she looked over she saw he’d already emptied his second glass.

She spun her own on her fingertips slowly before tipping it back with a swallow. Her eyes burned.

“Why did you come here?”

And damn it she couldn’t help herself from asking. What did she think he would say?

Luke said nothing, and the bartender refilled their glasses both again, then a second and third time. They drank together in silence and it didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable. It felt nice. The way being with Luke had always felt when the demons of her past weren’t creeping in.

Jessica had a head start on him, but she also had an amazing tolerance for alcohol, so she was sure that even a man as big as him had to be feeling something when her head was swimming. She barely noticed when he started to talk.

“Things will never be simple,” he said. “Not for people like us. I don’t know too many people that get it.”

“You could always sign up for the Avengers,” she quipped, stomach churning unpleasantly again. She pushed her empty glass away.

He let out a laugh. “No thanks. I don’t really want to get a superhero name and a spandex suit.”

“There could be benefits to that,” she replied, then blew the breath out of her nose. “Why do you want things to be simple?”

“Some things should be, shouldn’t they?” he asked. She found that when she looked over at him his eyes were on her, and they looked too serious for how much liquor he’d had to drink.

“It seems to me that…. The things that are worth having are… rarely simple,” she replied. “And if they matter then you’ll fight for them.” Her voice felt too soft and this all felt… suddenly way too deep. Jess felt a raw, gaping wound in her chest. A space in the shape of the man sitting beside her. Empty with the knowledge that this moment, whatever it was, was fleeting.

“Fuck…” she said, turning away. “I dunno what I’m saying. You should be getting advice from a person who actually has their shit together.” Someone like Claire, she thought, the words pressing at the back of her throat. She swallowed them, signalling for another whiskey.

Luke had fallen into silence again only this time it was a little awkward and Jessica waited for him to pay his tab and leave. 

But he didn’t. “Actually….” he said. “I think that’s pretty good advice. You hear that on Trish Talk?”

She laughed then, only she’d taken a drink and the whiskey burned at her nose and made her cough, and all the sudden things were easy again. They drank together until last call, stumbling out the door. Jess leaned against the brick wall, breathing the chill night air. 

“I didn’t think you ever drank like this,” she said. “Seems too… irresponsible for you.”

“Everyone’s gotta let loose sometime,” he said softly, hands tucked into his pockets as he stood in front of her. “I was just looking for something.. Different tonight.”

“Something different?” she asked, arching a brow. “Like a hangover?”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and it made her want to kiss him. Jess dug her fingernails into her palm to remind herself that she couldn’t.

“C’mon,” he said, tugging at the sleeve of her jacket. She slipped away from the solid brace of the building. 

She wanted to ask where they were going, but she didn’t, just walked with him. They got on a subway headed uptown with all the other drunken masses at two-thirty in the morning. It smelled faintly of piss and vomit and Jess tried not to focus on the press of Luke’s thigh against her’s where he sat beside her.

She wasn’t surprised when they got off in Harlem. It was where he was living these days, after all. The idea that they were going to his place made her heart pound beneath her ribcage, even though she told herself she wasn’t going to do anything. That was probably a lie. She was an asshole, after all.

The place Luke took her to was some old vacuum-repair shop. It looked like it had been abandoned for a while, and there was a “For Rent” sign on the front. 

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Danny wanted to open a business with me,” he said.

“The ‘Immortal Iron Fist’ Danny?”

“The same,” he agreed. “He helped me out with some stuff and…. He’s a good kid. Clueless as hell about a lot, but genuinely good, you know?”

“So… what kind of business?”

“He called it like a ‘Hero for Hire’ type deal. A place where regular people can ask for help from people like us. Because… there’s so much dangerous shit out there. Things regular people aren’t prepared to, or able to handle.”

“You’re gonna do it,” she said.

“Well, I wasn’t sure…”

“Luke,” she said, looking up at him. “You want to do it. I think it’s a good idea. I’m not sure it will be what Danny expects it to be… but you’ll be there to keep him grounded.”

He nodded slowly and Jessica almost startled when she felt his fingers brush against her wrist. She swallowed, took a step back. “I should probably…”

“Jess,” he said. “I’m…. not seeing Claire anymore.”

All the breath rushed out of her like she’d been run over by a truck, and she could only stare up at him in surprise. 

“You’re not?” she asked. “But… she seemed good for you. You know, like an emotionally healthy person without a whole lot of baggage.”

He chuckled. “Maybe. But… maybe we’re all messed up in our own ways,” he said. “Maybe we’re all just broken people and we’re looking to see how we fit together with someone else. Claire and I wanted…. Something different, in the end. We’ll stay friends, probably.” 

Jessica swallowed, finding she couldn’t think of anything to say. No smart remark, no quip. She let Luke take her hand in his and found she still liked the feel of it.

“Truth be told,” he went on. “Things felt… unfinished between us. I… bailed after Kilgrave instead of talking to you. By the time I really started to understand what had happened, to process it, I was knee deep in a whole mess of my own shit.”

She shook her head, wanting him to stop talking. He fell silent. “I don’t really blame you for any of that,” she said. “I… spent years running from him after I got him out of my head.”

She hated talking about it, so they fell silent after that. Luke’s hand was still warm around her’s as they walked down the street. As if they were any other couple on any other night. Jessica wondered if she’d passed out in a drunken stupor at the bar. The last few weeks seemed like a distant concern, the package she’d received completely out of her mind as they approached the doorstep to Luke’s apartment building.

She hadn’t been to his new place, but it felt like him when she stepped inside. Tidy but lived-in. Sparse enough to be a man’s apartment, but with far more personal touches than her own place. She ran her gaze over different framed photos before settling down on the couch. Luke brought them some beers, and she watched the condensation leave a ring on the glass coffee table as he settled beside her, giving her space if she wanted it.

“You said things… felt unfinished,” she began. “What does that mean?”

He sighed. “I can’t deny that I… think about you a lot. I worry about you. And yeah, you drive me crazy. And there’s… the history. But, it’s like you said earlier… something worth having isn’t always simple.”

Jess stared at him. “So… you, like me?”

“I like you, Jessica Jones. Whatever this is… it’s not going to be simple. But, I’m okay with that, if you are.”

“And what is that? Your… something different? Me and you?”

His grin made her belly flutter. “I guess we can find out. Let’s start with ‘stay the night’ and see where we end up.”


End file.
